Nov 22, 2011

A Rainy Weekend of 'Cross

After a two month hiatus, "real 'cross weather" returned this weekend and provided two days of slippery racing in Indiana and beyond. Saturday's ICX race at Major Taylor Velodrome saw intermittent rain on a very twisty course which resulted in many corner slide-outs, if not full epic mudfest conditions. It was also saw the possible invention of short track cyclocross racing, with all classes ending up with at least two more laps than would normally be expected and elite men's lap times well under five minutes.

Will Sorg took ninth place in the men's Cat 4 Open, while Ashton Wischmeier represented IU in the Midwest Collegiate Cycling Conference championships, taking sixteenth in the men's A division. Second place finishes were recorded by Don Galligher in the men's Elite 35+ race and Lindsay Rodkey in the women's Cat 3/4 Open race.

Sunday's OVCX race in Lexington, KY followed Saturday's rain with more downpours, resulting in full sloshy mud conditions by the afternoon races. Lindsay Rodkey took the women's Cat 4 Open victory and second place overall in the wave of Cat 4 women and junior girls. Bikereg.com teammates Liz Cobb and Sarah Fredrickson took sixth and seventh place in the elite women's wave, with Sarah taking the Cat 3 women's win. Finally, Andy Messer and Fred Rose once again placed back-to-back in third and fourth in the elite men's wave, and each took their respective masters category win.

Further abroad, Ryan Knapp competed in two days of UCI racing at the North Carolina Grand Prix where he took eighth on Saturday and fifth on Sunday.

Regional cyclocross racing will come to a pause for the Thanksgiving weekend, but those who are still itching to race can sign up to traverse "mother nature's cyclocross course" at the third annual SRAM Gravel Grovel, which will be starting at the Maumee Boy Scout Camp this year instead of the Story Inn.

Knapp has been screwed on 'Who's Number No1 rankings'. A UCI top 5 and no move in the rankings! Unfair! http://www.cyclingdirt.org/coverage/240269-Whos-1-Cyclocross-Rankings-20112012/video/519748-Whos-1-Cyclocross-Rankings-112311

Actually, I think Knapp's current ranking is pretty close. He is starting to get some results but, not only are not all UCI races created equal, but you have to look at his season visa vi riders ranked ahead of him. In the big races against TJ, J-Po (etc...)Ryan is still trying to make the jump. Last I checked Ryan was somewhere in the neighborhood of 36th nationally. That is nothing to sneeze at, so I'd probably less inclined to scream that he was "screwed".

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